Do you complain? About your boss? About your co-workers? About your job? About your life?

Of course, you do. We all do.

You complain to voice your concerns, your opinions, and even your desires. Complaining can be an excellent tool not only for speaking out against things that you don’t agree with but complaints can also be the catalyst for change.

But you complain to complain without a strategy for improvement.

I complained about everything… politics, NYC drivers, never having enough money, always being tired and crazy girlfriends. But I never did anything about my complaints. Until a life long friend turned to me and asked – ”So what are you going to do about it?”

I was startled by the question, so I paused and then responded like a five-year-old, “I dunno!.”

And my response bothered me. Why because my complaints were hollow; I never offered a solution, researched for a better method or took the time to fully understand the issue.

I slowly began to understand the problem wasn’t that I complained too much, it was that I provide nothing as a solution.

I slowly began to realize that I have more power than I initially thought. I not only had more power… I had a responsibility to use that power to add value to other people.

And how was I going to deliver value to others? It’s not easy, but you must start by understanding where you are in life. Next, you must know where you want to go. Once you are self-aware, it’s time to start becoming more valuable.

Because you can only add value to others if you have something valuable to contribute. So listening to a book a week, surrounding yourself with people that are smarter than you, stepping outside of your comfort zone – these are the opportunities that will make you more valuable.

If you want what you have never had before. If you want to do what you have never done before. If you want to be what, you have never been before. Then you need to change your mental state, from complaining about you don’t have to getting excited about the opportunity in front of you.

Because if you never take the opportunity to live with more purpose, at the end of your life all you will be left with is regret.